NORTHBOROUGH – The Fire Station Building Committee recently presented the project to the Financial Planning Committee and Appropriations Committee on Aug. 6.
A week later, the Select Board closed the warrant for the Special Town Meeting in October, which will include a vote on the project.
Northborough fire station project
Northborough’s future fire station is proposed for 61-65 West Main St.
The plans call for a 30,000-square-foot station with a 21,500-gross-square-foot first floor containing a training room, administrative space and apparatus bay and other operations spaces; the second floor would be 9,350 gross square feet and would be almost entirely the living space.
Under the plans, there would be a retaining wall in the back of the property to retain the grade of the site.
Fire Chief David Parenti and Department of Public Works Director Scott Charpentier initiated a conversation with the people who own an abutting property to the west that currently houses Hillside Grill to do additional grading along the property line. During the joint meeting of Financial Planning and Appropriations committees, HKT Architect’s Amy Dunlap said this regrading would allow them to lower the height of the retaining wall along the property line, which would save money.
Prior to development, there was a slope, and when workers cut into it to build Hillside Grill, they had to construct a retaining wall to contain the earth. Dunlap said that similar work will need to take place for the fire station.
“What it left was this wedge of land between the two properties right along the property line that was still high because of the way these retaining walls needed to be structured along the property line there,” Dunlap said.
She said the civil engineers realized that if they could regrade the land — which would involve going onto Hillside Grill’s site to lower their grade as well — the height of the wall between the properties could be lowered.
Dunlap said those conversations are ongoing.
The project is currently in the construction document phase, which involves putting in more engineering and technical details.
According to Dunlap, they recently sent the drawing set to the cost estimators for HKT Architects and Colliers to conduct a cost estimate. That reconciled estimate will be the figure that they will have to go to Town Meeting with in October.
About $3.5 million has already been approved. As a result, the range of the remaining total project cost is between $40.8 to $43.4 million. The average annual tax impact is estimated at $344.
The Fire Station Building Committee and its professionals have pretty much used up all of the funds available through the $3.5 million allocation, according to Tim Alix, who is with Colliers.
Town Meeting
During a meeting on Aug. 12, the Select Board voted to close the warrant for the Special Town Meeting on Oct. 7. In addition to the fire station project, Town Meeting will also vote to transfer money from the sewer enterprise fund’s free cash to pay Marlborough for its fiscal year 2024 costs and appropriate money to pay the settlement agreement cost of fiscal 2025’s assessment.
The town recently settled with Marlborough in litigation over sewer.
Town Meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at Algonquin Regional High School. For more information on the project and an informational video series, visit https://www.town.northborough.ma.us/fire-rescue-emergency-management/pages/northborough-fire-station-project
The project will also be on the ballot for the Nov. 5 election.
